Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spinning reel, particularly to a spinning reel equipped with a bail flip mechanism.
Background Information
A spinning reel is a type of reel for forwardly reeling out (casting) a fishing line. The spinning reel is equipped with a bail arm and a bail flip mechanism configured to return the bail arm to a fishing-line winding posture from a fishing-line releasing posture (see e.g., Japan Patent No. 4221240). A well-known bail flip mechanism includes a moving member, a toggle spring member and a switch member. The moving member is mounted to a rotor so as to be movable to a first position and a second position in a back-and-forth direction. The first position corresponds to the fishing-line winding position. The second position corresponds to the fishing-line casting position. The toggle spring member is configured to urge the moving member from the first position to the second position or vice versa across a dead center. When the rotor is rotated in the fishing-line winding direction, the switch member is configured to make contact with the moving member located in the second position and move the moving member toward the first position across a position corresponding to the dead center of the toggle spring member. The switch member is fixed to a circular flange of a reel unit. The switch member has a slope and a non-sloped surface. The slope gradually protrudes forward along the fishing-line winding direction of the rotor. The switch member protrudes across the dead center corresponding position to the vicinity of the middle between the first position and the dead center corresponding position. The switch member is thus constructed for forcibly moving the moving member toward the first position when either the moving member or the toggle spring member is not normally moved due to factors such as friction even if the dead center of the toggle spring member is exceeded.
In the well-known bail flip mechanism constructed as described above, the bail arm is flipped to the fishing-line casting position before releasing the fishing line. Accordingly, the moving member is moved from the first position to the second position. When releasing the fishing line is finished, the rotor is rotated in the fishing-line casting direction in conjunction with an operation of a handle. When the rotor is rotated in the fishing-line winding direction, the moving member located in the second position is pressed toward the first position by the slope until moved across the dead center corresponding position. When moved across the dead center corresponding position, the moving member is returned to the first position by the urging force of the toggle spring member, and thus, the bail arm is returned to the fishing-line winding posture.
In the well-known spinning reel, when the bail arm is returned from the fishing-line casting position to the fishing-line winding position, the toggle spring member is configured to be compressed until the moving member is moved onto the slope of the switch member and is moved across the dead center corresponding position. Thus, the urging force of the toggle spring member acutely increases. In the well-known spinning reel, rotating the handle against the urging force that acutely increases in flipping the bail is required. Put differently, when the moving member is moved onto the slope of the switch member, this makes it difficult to rotate the handle and further smoothly return the bail arm from the fishing-line casting position to the fishing-line winding position. As a countermeasure for this, reduction in gradient of the slope of the switch member can be proposed. However, the entire circumferential length of the switch member inevitably increases with reduction in gradient of the slope of the switch member.